Dispatches from the Field, a new digital program designed to bring The Explorers Club community closer—wherever you are.
Each session kicks off with a 15-20-minute talk from a Featured Speaker, recorded and posted later to the public on explorers.org and our YouTube channel.
This will be followed by Campfire sessions—intimate, Members-Only breakout groups where you can connect, share ideas, and build relationships.
This edition features Kenna Rubin, EC50 2026, to present “The Secret Life of Earth’s Hidden Deep Submarine Volcanoes”
Most of Earth’s volcanic activity unfolds hidden beneath the ocean, dramatically transforming seafloor landscapes, ocean chemistry, and deep-sea ecosystems, with little to no evidence at the surface. In the 40 years since the first detected deep-sea eruption, only a handful have been directly observed, offering rare, dramatic glimpses into how these environments erupt and rapidly evolve. This talk brings you to the scene of those events through first-hand accounts from one of the few scientists to witness nearly all of them, revealing what it’s like to explore a freshly erupted seafloor, and what technology we use. Featuring recent discoveries (including a DSV Alvin dive to the deepest known young eruption deposit at ~20,000 ft in the Caribbean, a new eruption offshore Mexico, and groundbreaking work studying explosive deep sea volcanism in Tonga). This is a front-row seat to one of the least seen but most visually stunning forces shaping our planet.
Members only – click here to register.
Kenna Rubin
Kenna is an environmental scientist, educator, communicator, and field researcher who studies active volcanoes and tropical coral reefs, with an emphasis on natural and human-driven hazards and deep-sea exploration. She is part of the Explorers club EC50 2026 class. She has led or participated in >30 oceanographic expeditions, including hundreds of submersible dives (her deepest exceeding 20,000 feet). Her research spans active submarine and terrestrial volcanoes worldwide, including in Hawai‘i, Iceland, the Caribbean, Mexico, Tonga, Indonesia, and the Galápagos. Currently a professor and former associate dean at the University of Rhode Island, she spent much of her academic career at the University of Hawai‘i and holds graduate degrees in Oceanography and Earth Sciences from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, along with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.
